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I am an independent inventor with a long-time interest in general systems and complexity theory, as well as media and politics and societ...Video Episodes:
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22:58:28 09/11/06
Henry David Thoreau's cabin near Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts 1854 and before
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From the beginning of Walden: >
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.
Henry David Thoreau published Walden in 1854. The book is constructed as a kind of a journal of his life, philosophical and social reflections, and astute observations of nature and his surroundings that are often intended to be metaphorical as well concrete. Walden itself is a very deep pond, and Thoreau was fond of plumbing its depths--a reference to his mind and soul as much to the body of water on which he rowed, in which he fished, and from which he drank.
Tom Morris and I sat in Thoreau's cabin and found ourselves talking of the parallels between Thoreau (1817-1862) and the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Both were powerful intellects who lived the daily lives of near-monks, while also engaging in the debates and society of their day. Both traveled little, thought long, and wrote with lasting influence. Both died young, Thoreau at age 45, Kierkegaard at 42.
The cabin is of course a mock-up of the original, but because of Thoreau's detailed description of the cabin in Walden, the replica is quite exact. I found myself in a reflective mood as Tom and I sat in the evening light on Henry's two small chairs.
As we sat leaning back in our chairs, not facing each other directly but looking out the door and windows as we formed our thoughts, I was reminded of one of my favorite passages in Walden:
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One inconvenience I sometimes experienced in so small a house, the difficulty of getting to a sufficient distance from my guest when we began to utter the big thoughts in big words. You want room for your thoughts to get into sailing trim and run a course or two before they make their port. The bullet of your thought must have overcome its lateral and ricochet motion and fallen into its last and steady course before it reaches the ear of the hearer, else it may plow out again through the side of his head. Also, our sentences wanted room to unfold and form their columns in the interval. Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them. I have found it a singular luxury to talk across the pond to a companion on the opposite side. In my house we were so near that we could not begin to hear—we could not speak low enough to be heard; as when you throw two stones into calm water so near that they break each other's undulations. If we are merely loquacious and loud talkers, then we can afford to stand very near together, cheek by jowl, and feel each other's breath; but if we speak reservedly and thoughtfully, we want to be farther apart, that all animal heat and moisture may have a chance to evaporate. If we would enjoy the most intimate society with that in each of us which is without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot possibly hear each other's voice in any case. Referred to this standard, speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout. As the conversation began to assume a loftier and grander tone, we gradually shoved our chairs farther apart till they touched the wall in opposite corners, and then commonly there was not room enough.
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22:01:15 09/11/06
Bronson Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy, 1879-1888
[LESS INFO] 14 VIEWS | ADDED 02:01:15 09/12/06
Tom and I visited Bronson Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy, located just outside of town. This site has an almost magical serenity, and it reminded Tom of the British Secular Schools and similar citizen-centered educational institutions and movements.
Alcott was perhaps the most activist of the transcendentalists, seeking to put principles into life to the utmost possible extent. As a result he challenged others and himself, attempted some of the most extreme lifestyle experiments, and ultimately became a beloved teacher and discussion-leader.
born Nov. 29, 1799, Wolcott, Conn., U.S.
died March 4, 1888, Concord, Mass.
U.S. teacher and philosopher.
The self-educated son of a poor farmer, Alcott worked as a peddler before establishing a series of innovative but ultimately unsuccessful schools for children. He traveled to Britain with money borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson and came back with the mystic Charles Lane, with whom he founded the short-lived utopian community Fruitlands outside Boston. Alcott is credited with establishing the first parent-teacher association in Concord, Mass., while he was superintendent of schools there. A prominent member of the Transcendentalists, he wrote a number of books but did not become financially secure until his daughter Louisa May Alcott achieved success.
The following additional notes are courtesy Amy Belding Brown, from a remarkable web biography of Alcott, located at American Transcendentalism Web
Alcott's ideas were instrumental in forming Emerson's thought as recorded in the transcendental seminal work, Nature. Alcott was an early admirer of Thoreau's reasoned philosophy of civil disobedience, and acted upon those principles several years before Thoreau did. He embraced a more broader conception of truth than his friends, asserting that true genius encompassed intellect, nature, and society.
Alcott was an inveterate talker, and loved leading "Conversations," free-flowing discussions on selected topics. Because his conversations lacked systematic thought or continuity, participants were sometimes disappointed at the lack of direction. Yet Alcott was, typically, undaunted. "All the beauty and advantages of Conversation," he wrote, "is in its bold contrasts, and swift surprises... Prose and logic are out of place, where all is flowing, magical, and free."
In his later years, Alcott traveled throughout the Midwest on lecture tours, where he finally achieved recognition for his ideas on education and transcendentalism. During the Civil War, he served as Superintendent of Schools in Concord, and in 1879, thanks to the financial support of his admirers, he was able to achieve a lifelong dream and founded the Concord School of Philosophy. One of the first summer schools for adults, the School of Philosophy continued for nine years and drew people from all over the United States.
Alcott outlived his closest transcendentalist friends, dying on March 4, 1888, two days before his famous daughter, Louisa, succumbed to the long-term effects of mercury poisoning. The Concord School of Philosophy closed in July of that year after holding a memorial service honoring Alcott.
Bloggers Tom Morris and Jim Moore, September 11, 2006
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19:36:42 09/11/06
Henry David Thoreau grave in Concord Cemetary, Concord Massachusetts, 1862
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 23:36:42 09/11/06
Writer, activist, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau was buried in 1862 in Concord Cemetary. He was 45 when he died, of an infection.
I have always been impressed by the humble nature of
Thoreau's gravestone. It measures about 10 inches high, and is inscribed only with "Henry." It would not even be recognizeable if it were not in a Thoreau family plot, where he is buried with his parents and siblings.
Not many know of this grave, which is in a quiet back lot in the Concord Cemetary.
Here from the Encyclopedia Brittanica is a short biographical note on Henry David Thorea:
Writer, activist, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau was buried in 1862 in Concord Cemetary. He was 45 when he died, of an infection.
American essayist , poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).